SANTI NAYEK Vs. THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has been convicted of offences of under Sections 498A/302 of the Indian Penal Code for subjecting his deceased wife, Tapasi to continuous mental and physical torture and ultimately committing her murder in the morning of 5th Sept. 1998 upon setting her on fire after pouring kerosene oil on her. The appellant and the victim hail from the same village, Nawpala in the district of Howrah. They had two sons and one daughter from their marriage. The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court 1, Uluberia delivered the judgment on 25th July 2008, finding the appellant guilty of the aforesaid offences. The appellant has been directed by the First Court to undergo sentence of rigorous imprisonment for life with fine of Rs.1,00,000.00 for committing the offence under Sec. 302 of the Penal Code. The sentence prescribes further rigorous imprisonment of one month in default in payment of fine. For committing the offence under Sec. 498A of the IPC, the appellant has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three years and to pay fine of Rs.3,000.00. In default of payment of fine, the appellant has been directed to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for a term of three months. The victim died in her matrimonial home on 5th Sept. 1998. The postmortem report records the provisional opinion of the autopsy surgeon as regards the cause of death to be acute shock due to extensive burn which was ante-mortem in nature. It is also recorded in the opinion column of the postmortem report that final opinion would be given on receipt of reports of chemical analysis. No final report however was available at the time of trial. At the material point of time, the appellant was working as a class four staff with the Indian Railways.

(2.) A written complaint was made by the father of the deceased, Kartick Das (P.W. 13) on 6th Sept. 1998, the day following the date of alleged commission of offence. The formal FIR was registered on the basis of that complaint as PS Bagnan FIR No. 93/98 dated 6th Sept. 1998. This has been marked Exhibit 7 by the First Court at the time of trial. In the written complaint the P.W. 13 (father of the deceased) has in substance alleged that his son-in-law, the appellant used to torture the deceased physically and mentally. According to the P.W. 13, the appellant was addicted to gambling which the deceased tried to prevent him from indulging in and torture was inflicted on her because of such objection or resistance. On the night of 4th Sept. 1998, the appellant had beaten up the deceased severely, as it appears from the written complaint, and in the morning of 5th Sept. also the victim was assaulted. At about 11.30 A.M., on the day of occurrence of the incident one Haru Das (P.W. 8) had informed the son of the complainant Bapi Das (P.W. 1) that there was fire in the residential house of the appellant. When the P.W. 1 reached the matrimonial home of the victim, he found his sister lying dead in burnt condition. It has been stated in the written complaint that the de facto complainant came to know from the local people as also from the son of the victim Gouranga (who has deposed as P.W. 6) that the appellant was inside the room when the victim was burning and he fled when smoke started billowing out of the room and the neighbouring people started shouting.

(3.) Though written complaint was made on the next day, police had reached the place of occurrence for inquest on that very day, on the basis of an Unnatural Death case registered as U.D. Case No. 61/98 of Bagnan police station. It appears from the deposition of P.W. 1 that their Gram Pradhan, one Naren Mukherjee, had reported to police of occurrence of the incident. The unnatural Death case, however, was registered on the basis of information given by one Sailen Bhowmik. It transpires from the deposition of P.W.15, Bhaskar Das (one of the two officers who investigated the case) that it was a written information, but the same did not disclose any cognisable offence. Assistant sub-inspector Nimai Sasmal (P.W. 10) conducted inquest as per direction of P.W. 15 between 4 PM and 4.30 PM on the date of occurrence itself. This inquest was made on the basis of the unnatural death case. This appears from endorsement made on the Inquest Report, which have been marked Exhibit 1/1. The body of the deceased was sent to the morgue of the Uluberia Sadar hospital for ascertaining the cause of death through a constable, Krishna Mohan Mitra. The autopsy surgeon Dr. M.A. Chowdhury (P.W. 14) deposed that the dead body was brought from the house of the appellant, and was identified by said Krishna Mohan Mitra. Postmortem was conducted at Uluberia hospital morgue. It is revealed from deposition of P.W. 15, that the appellant was not initially traceable but he had surrendered before the Court later, on 15th Sept. 1998. Thereafter he was taken into custody. Charges were framed by the Court under Sections 498A and 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC), to which the appellant pleaded not guilty.